The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades - Social Sciences ...

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y the slave trade in the nineteenth century. Because the slave trades weakened ties between villages, they also discouraged the formation of larger communities and broader ethnic identities. Therefore, the slave trades may be an important factor explaining Africa’s high level of ethnic fractionalization today. If this is the case, then this is a potential channel through which the slave trades may have long-term effects. The relationship between ethnic fractionalization and economic development was first documented by Easterly and Levine (1997). More recently, research by La Porta et al. (1999), Alesina et al. (2003), Aghion et al. (2004), and Easterly et al. (2006) looks more deeply into the importance of ethnic fractionalization, finding that it is also a primary determinant of social cohesion, domestic institutions, domestic polices, and the quality of government. Other research finds that ethnic fractionalization also reduces the provision of public goods (e.g., Alesina et al., 1999; Miguel and Gugerty, 2005; Banerjee and Somanathan, 2006), which may in turn affect development. 2.2.2 State Fragmentation and the Weakening of States The conflict between communities, caused by the external demand for slaves, resulted in conflict within communities. Because of the general environment of uncertainty and insecurity at the time, individuals required weapons, such as iron knives, spears, swords or firearms, to defend themselves. These weapons could be obtained from Europeans in exchange for slaves, which were often obtained through local kidnappings. This further perpetuated the slave trade and the insecurity that it caused, which in turn further increased the need to enslave others to protect oneself (Mahadi, 1992; Hawthorne, 1999, pp. 108–109). Historians have named this vicious cycle the ‘gunslave cycle’ (e.g., Lovejoy, 2000) or the ‘iron-slave cycle’ (e.g., Hawthorne, 2003). The result of this vicious cycle was that communities not only raided other communities for slaves, but also members of a community raided and kidnapped others within the community. Well-documented examples come from the Balanta, of modern day Guinea-Bissau, who “became involved in slaving, often preying on other Balanta communities” and the Minyanka, of modern day Mali, who were forced by rival states “into participation in slave-raiding and bitter conflict between [other] Minyanka villages” (Klein, 2001, pp. 56–57). The most extreme example is the Kabre of Northern Togo, who during the nineteenth century developed the custom of selling their own kin into slavery (Piot, 1996). Europeans played a role in promoting political instability. Because those involved in the buying and selling of slaves benefited from a larger supply 6
of slaves, when possible they intervened in the political process to promote internal conflict and instability (Barry, 1992; Inikori, 2003). Slave merchants and raiders formed strategic alliances with key groups inside villages or states in order to extract slaves. Typically, the alliances were with the younger men of the community who were frustrated by the control of power by the male elders. The consequence of this was increased internal conflict and political instability (Klein, 2003). In the end, the consequences of internal conflict and insecurity were increased political instability, and in many cases the collapse of pre-existing forms of government (Lovejoy, 2000, pp. 68–70). Historians have documented numerous examples of this. In 16th century Northern Senegambia, the Portuguese slave trade led to the eventual disintegration of the Joloff Confederation, which was replaced by the much smaller kingdoms of Waalo, Kajoor, Baol, Siin and Saalum. Further south, in Southern Senegambia, the same pattern is observed. Prior to the slave trades, complex state systems were in the process of evolving. However, this evolution stagnated soon after the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century (Barry, 1998, pp. 36–59). The most dramatic example of the weakening of domestic political institutions is the Kongo Kingdom of West Central Africa. As early as 1514, the kidnapping of local Kongo citizens for sale to the Portuguese had become rampant, threatening social order and the King’s authority. In 1526, Affonso, King of Kongo, wrote to Portugal complaining that “there are many traders in all corners of the country. They bring ruin to the country. Every day people are enslaved and kidnapped, even nobles, even members of the king’s own family.” (Vansina, 1966, p. 52). This break-down of law and order resulted in the weakening and eventual fall of the once powerful state (Inikori, 2003). For many of the other Bantu speaking ethnicities, stable states also existed in earlier periods, but by the time the slave trades were brought to an end few ancient states remained (Colson, 1969, pp. 36–37). 7 7 The research of Tilly (1990) and others argue that the modern system of nation states in Europe was the result of constant conflict and competition between states. However, in Africa the conflict caused by the slave trades did not result in the development of strong states. Instead, the result was an increase in internal conflict, which retarded, rather than facilitated, state development. The reason for the difference is that during the slave trades, individuals had an option of protecting themselves from the external insecurity by engaging in kidnappings and slave raiding within the community. Here, the individual could gain at the expense of the community. In Europe, members of a community did not have this option and as a result, their interests were aligned with the interests of the community or state as a whole. It was in everyone’s best interest to maintain and promote strong stable states. Lovejoy (2000, p. 70) addresses this difference between Africa and Europe, writing that “the record of warfare that fills the accounts of past [African] states 7
Page 1 and 2: The Long-Term Effects of Africa’s
Page 3 and 4: and these countries continue to be
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Page 9 and 10: that prevails today. 9 2.2.3 Deteri
Page 11 and 12: 3 Slave Export Data 3.1 Constructio
Page 13 and 14: ethnicities of Africans. Hall (2005
Page 15 and 16: slave caravans allows one to produc
Page 17 and 18: Figure 2: African ethnicities and c
Page 19 and 20: Table 3: Total Slave Exports from 1
Page 21 and 22: This is not surprising given that w
Page 23 and 24: Relationship Between Current Income
Page 25 and 26: 5 Econometric Issues: Causality and
Page 27 and 28: most impacted by the slave trades.
Page 29 and 30: USA; Havana, Cuba; Haiti; Kingston,
Page 31 and 32: Table 5: IV Estimates Using Distanc
Page 33 and 34: 5.2.2 Initial Population Density Th
Page 35 and 36: of coastline divided by land area,
Page 37 and 38: Table 8: Testing potential channels
Page 39 and 40: Table 10: Robustness and Sensitivit
Page 41 and 42: causing current underdevelopment. I
Page 43 and 44: B.1 Using Distance to Slave Markets
Page 45 and 46: The rule of law in 2000 is from Kau
Page 47 and 48: References Acemoglu, Daron, “Rewa
Page 49 and 50: Engerman, Stanley L., and Kenneth L
Page 51 and 52: ———, Transformations in Slave

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